Occupying and Organizing the East Side of Milwaukee

Tag Archives: basketball game

Milwaukee, WI - As a line of hundreds of Marquette University students continued to build for their home game basketball game of the year versus fellow Jesuit University rival Notre Dame a different line also began to form. This line was equally as loud and visible despite visibly less numbers than the huge student turnout for the final home game of the year. This was a Boycott Palermo’s Pizza informational picket line aiming to educate game goers about the ongoing strike and boycott at the local pizza company, where workers were illegally fired for organizing a union.

Striking Palermo’s workers and MU students band together to bring their message to waiting students.

According to their Facebook page, the informational picket was organized by the MU Coalition for Worker Rights to:

“…demand that Marquette University cut its contract with Palermo Villa, Inc.

Marquette University, despite being an affiliate of two international groups that support fair labor rights, has a contract with Palermo’s Pizza, a company that fired dozens of workers this summer for attempting to form a union.

The MUCWR stands in solidarity with the Palermo workers, and is urging Marquette to stand behind its principles and international agreements by cutting its contract with this exploitative company.”

The Boycott Palermo’s informational picket line ran right next to the student line waiting to get into the basketball game

A group of about 40 workers and their supporters held signs, marched, chanted, passed out literature explaining the labor dispute, and generally made themselves visible engaging many passersby and game attendees into perhaps pondering why their university was drawing such a spirited protest. Check out our video below from Saturday’s event.